Attendance low at oil lease meeting

By VALERIE GARMAN / The News Herald

Published: Wednesday, March 27, 2013 at 09:16 PM.

Following the public comment period, a final study will be developed and is slated for completion by the end of this year. The document will then go before the director of BOEM for approval. Moving forward with the lease sale is the recommended action, according to the EIS.

PANAMA CITY BEACH — A pair of public meetings were held at the Wyndham Bay Point Resort Wednesday to gather public input on two proposed lease sale sites for oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico.

However, officials from the U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) received little feedback from area residents, with about a dozen attendees throughout the day and only two who provided comment.

The purpose of the meeting was to gather input on a study on the potential environmental impacts of leasing the area to companies seeking to harvest oil and natural gas.

BOEM environmental scientist Brian Cameron presented the draft Environmental Impact Study (EIS) to meeting attendees, outlining the proposed lease sale areas located about 125 miles off the coast of Pensacola in the Gulf of Mexico’s Eastern Planning Area.

Gary Goeke, chief of the regional assessment section for BOEM’s environmental office, said public participation often varies greatly in the region.

BOEM held a similar meeting in Tallahassee on Tuesday, which yielded only nine attendees and three commenters. Goeke said he feels participation has been lacking because of the small scale of the proposed sites.

“It’s all way offshore, it’s very deep water and the odds of anyone having any visibility of it is very, very small,” Goeke said. “It’s a very small proposed sale and it’s 125 miles off shore. We haven’t had large crowds, I think, because it is so far offshore.”

Part of BOEM’s five-year leasing program, the two lease sales are scheduled for 2014 and 2016, and encompass a 658,000 acre area with an 800-foot water depth.

According to data outlined in the study, the estimated amount of natural resources projected to be developed as a result of the lease sale is small.

The document also outlines a series of “significant issues” that could arise from the lease sales including oil spills, wetlands loss, air emissions, trash and debris, impacts on tourism, water quality degradation, discharges and more.

With the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill still fresh in the minds of many Gulf Coast residents, Goeke said BOEM still runs into people who voice concerns of another spill of its magnitude.

Goeke said BOEM is responsible for ongoing research on what happened at the Macondo well nearly three years ago, and the information will be included in the agency’s EIS.

BOEM also will be holding public meetings in Mobile, Ala., Gulfport, Miss., and New Orleans in the coming weeks.

Following the public comment period, a final study will be developed and is slated for completion by the end of this year. The document will then go before the director of BOEM for approval. Moving forward with the lease sale is the recommended action, according to the EIS.

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